Chapter 3 - Level Failed (TWB)
Eelee would've normally leapt to his feet and berated Yoshi for knocking him roughly to the floor, but the proclamation that Yoshi had came with halted his mouth, for once. Picking himself off the floor, ignoring the slight trickle of blood coming from his mouth, Eelee let his eyes scan Yoshi's person. The tall hero had scrapes and bruises all over his body, with his suit scorched on the sleeves. In places, the suit had ripped away entirely, exposing bare skin. "Problem?" Rob questioned, taking his crossbow from his right shoulder, and reaching back with his left hand to draw an arrow out of the quiver on his left shoulder. "Let me at it." "Stand down, Rob." Eelee grunted, "what type of problem, Yoshi?" Eelee was acutely aware of a few questioning looks from the Koopas around, especially the Magikoopas that were on the clean-up crew of the flaming wreck Yoshi created. Yoshi didn't dawdle: "The base was invaded. We lost it." "What?!" "No way?!" "Squirt's fault." The heroes cried various replies in unison, with Rob and Eelee exchanging a shocked glance. Eelee listened as Yoshi lapsed into the story of the lost base, describing a "hairy redhead" that stormed into the mountain base with countless soldiers, subdued Crystal, before taking out Squirt effortlessly. His heart fell lower and lower as he heard of Yoshi's desperate race through the hallways into the hangar, blasting from the base seconds before being overwhelmed by soldier after soldier. "That's not good." Rob piped in with the understatement of the century. "You bet." Eelee concurred, running over the best course of action in his head."So what are we going to do?" Jamie asked, glancing at Eelee, who was to his left. "If it involves saving Squirt, count me out!" Eelee shook his head in disbelief; Jamie was a fantastic hero because of his rare abilities, but his reluctance to use them or support the other heroes was a perennial stumbling block. ''Then again, ''Eelee realized, ''if he used his talents properly, I wouldn't be leader. ''It was in that moment that Eelee decided that Jamie was perfect the way he was. Rob tilted his head to the right, where Eelee was standing next to him. "Well, I think-" "Never mind what you think," Eelee interrupted the smaller man. "What I think we should do is split up. Rob, take Yoshi and move into Bowser's Castle. Figure out what Bowser is doing. Jamie, you're coming with me. We're going back to the base." Without waiting for a reply, Eelee began to stride toward the blue airship that he had just landed. He had walked a few paces across the tarmac when he realized he wasn't being followed. Standing a few paces back, with expressions of incredulous irritability, were the other three heroes. "That's the worst plan I've ever heard." Jamie explained, "and that's counting all the stuff I've heard spewed out of Yoshi's mouth," Jamie added, his white robes reflected the steadily-brightening Koopan sun much better than his scowl that prevented him from showing off his pearly-whites. "Excuse me? Hiding my dirty socks in Eelee's pillowcase was a great plan!" Yoshi berated Jamie angrily, sparks flying from his eyes, tensing up his muscles. "No, it's not, because we already did that to Squirt!" "It's supposed to be our signature! All the mob bosses have a way of murder!" "Dirty socks in pillowcases," Rob spoke slowly, as if processing every word: "Is a way of murder?" "Yeah, you just shove 'em in, and the fumes take over the body, and then it's almost as if someone got a sword and stuck it up your-" "I'd like to hold off on the trauma of that answer, thanks," Eelee interrupted. "We're getting off-topic." Yoshi snapped his fingers together as if he suddenly remembered something. "Right! Did you not listen to a word of what I said?" He narrowed his eyes, fixing Eelee with a glare. Eelee couldn't help taking a step back - Yoshi was almost a foot taller and a very strong man. Slapping a palm to his forehead, Rob shook his head. "People do that regularly. Eelee, splitting up is a horrible idea. Yoshi said that there were countless soldiers. How do you expect Jamie and you to be able to take them? Even if you use lightning and Jamie uses electromagnetic waves, you'll still be overwhelmed!" ''Good point. ''Eelee realized, noticing the flaws in his plan. "What do you think we should do, then?" Eelee questioned Rob, who didn't miss a beat in replying. "Appeal to Bowser. He's already preparing for war. If anything, we could get an army from him." Rob crossed his arms and gestured toward the back of Bowser's Castle. "If anyone is going to help us reclaim the base, it will be Bowser. Peach is too much of a pacifist." Eelee winced at Rob's nonchalant insulting of the young Mushroom Kingdom princess - Rob was showing his inner Koopa, that was for sure, and Eelee was glad they were in Koopan territory. "We came here to TALK Bowser out of war. We want to start 1987 with a new mentality. We've been fighting villain after villain for four years now, we CANNOT have Bowser mess it all up now of all times! Peach may be a pacifist, but at least she isn't constantly throwing her armies into the firing line!" Eelee snarled, frustrated at Rob's lack of longterm thinking, but perhaps more frustrated at Rob's plan being more viable for their purposes than his own. "Bowser's been in charge of the Koopa Kingdom since the moment he was born - his father Morton died before he was born. You can't tell me this guy doesn't think of longterm consequences." Rob argued. "We can do both- talk him out of war and get his help to chase these people out of our base." Eelee turned to the group, looking for support on his opinion. They could not risk war between the historically acriminous Kingdoms of the Koopas and Mushroomians in the very first week of 1987 when it was mere weeks after the defeat of Extrak. "Well?" Eelee questioned Yoshi and Jamie, very rarely silent. "I'm with Rob." Yoshi grunted, lumbering over to stand beside Rob. Jamie waited two seconds, before shrugging at Eelee and joining Yoshi by Rob's side. "Right, we're decided," snarled Eelee, before pushing his teammates aside and leading the way to the Castle.